I am happy to say that my website is once again on-line, but now in a different place. With this rebirth, I am also beginning a composer's blog to inform the public of my musical ideas, specifically of compositional ideas and projects that I am grappling with from time to time. When these ideas are conceived in the mind and I feel they should be shared with the public, I will jot them down for public scrutiny.
For this first blog, I have one particular project to mention. I have contemplated for many months on creating my very first opera. If I ever complete this task, developing this production would be exceptionally challenging. First of all, what story would be the focus of my opera? Where would the libretto come from? How long would it take me to write the music?
Since March of this year, I have found one subject of particular interest. Anyone who studies music at the university would be familiar to some degree with Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Wagner's concept of love-death pervades that entire opera. I do not believe it is the only story that touches on this subject. There is a story in the Thousand and One Nights, which I feel captures equally the violent and obsessive passions of two lovers. The only difference is that the chemistry between the two lovers in this story is more natural. The love between Tristan and Isolde, on the other hand, is not. Rather, it is magically induced upon them from the love potion concocted by Isolde's nurse. The story I am interested in is called "The History of Aboulhassan Ali Ebn Becar and Schemselnihar." Aboulhassan is a Persian Prince who is living in Baghdad when during his visit with his friend Ebn Thaler, a merchant, he meets Schemselnihar, who enters Ebn's shop to purchase some goods. Schemselnihar is the favorite of the Caliph Harun al-Raschid, the ruler of Baghdad. In that shop the Persian Prince and the favorite fall desperately in love at first sight, to such an extent that their passions for each other overwhelm them. Their fears of the caliph's power and his reaction to this unforeseen development complicate any attempt to consummate their feelings. These two characters, refusing to forget one another, become completely unhappy yet incapable of living without the other. Both characters die from two causes: their anguish for each other and starvation. The story ends with their corpses being buried right beside one another.
After performing some research on this particular story, no opera to my knowledge has ever been composed on it. There is a ballet for orchestra called "Schemselnihar" composed by Leo Smit in 1929, but there is no music associated with this story beyond that. This story does not have a libretto. That makes the idea for me all the more fascinating.
Since late March, I made my decision. I have been slowly writing the libretto for this opera ever since. Although the task is arduous, the experience is certainly rewarding as I shall provide in the brief excerpt below. The words in this excerpt are spoken by the Persian Prince when he listens to a concert given by Schemselnihar's slaves in her palace. The slave's song resonates with the Prince's experiences, and his amazement in response to the music is illustrated clearly in the following passage. I have denoted in bold the English translation, which is in prose, followed by my adaptation of the text into verse underneath:
“Is it possible that you can have the faculty of penetrating the inmost thoughts of others, and that the knowledge that you have of what passes in my heart has enabled you to give my feelings utterance in the sound of your delightful voice? I could not myself have expressed in more appropriate terms the passion of my heart.”
Ah, can it be? That you possess the gift
To probe my inmost thoughts? That you may lift
By grace and knowledge what assails my mind
And heart, lend words to feelings unexpress’d,
Stir up by mellow tones that have impress’d
Me, lost in sighs? What powers do I find!
Your song excels all thrills my heart can pen
In passion, scribes in stone the flames of men.
Perhaps, the next question that comes to mind is: Is this opera intended for viewing by a large audience: over 200 people? For many months, it was my intention to write the opera in this way, but I have recently decided that it might be more artistically feasible to produce this opera for a smaller crowd, of approximately 30 to 40 people. Rather than having a full-blown orchestral score, because the setting for the majority of the story is rather intimate, it would be far more suitable to employ a chamber orchestra than to inflate the musical drama into a giant orchestra.
Since I began work on the libretto, I have finished drafting the first act. It is my goal to complete the rest of the libretto before I graduate from the University of Iowa. Perhaps, once the entire libretto is closer to completion, I could compose a scene from the opera for a limited production. The possibility remains open-ended at this point. I won't know until I am much closer to finishing the text. In future correspondence I will provide further information about my progress on this work when the time seems appropriate and only when significant progress has been made.
For this first blog, I have one particular project to mention. I have contemplated for many months on creating my very first opera. If I ever complete this task, developing this production would be exceptionally challenging. First of all, what story would be the focus of my opera? Where would the libretto come from? How long would it take me to write the music?
Since March of this year, I have found one subject of particular interest. Anyone who studies music at the university would be familiar to some degree with Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Wagner's concept of love-death pervades that entire opera. I do not believe it is the only story that touches on this subject. There is a story in the Thousand and One Nights, which I feel captures equally the violent and obsessive passions of two lovers. The only difference is that the chemistry between the two lovers in this story is more natural. The love between Tristan and Isolde, on the other hand, is not. Rather, it is magically induced upon them from the love potion concocted by Isolde's nurse. The story I am interested in is called "The History of Aboulhassan Ali Ebn Becar and Schemselnihar." Aboulhassan is a Persian Prince who is living in Baghdad when during his visit with his friend Ebn Thaler, a merchant, he meets Schemselnihar, who enters Ebn's shop to purchase some goods. Schemselnihar is the favorite of the Caliph Harun al-Raschid, the ruler of Baghdad. In that shop the Persian Prince and the favorite fall desperately in love at first sight, to such an extent that their passions for each other overwhelm them. Their fears of the caliph's power and his reaction to this unforeseen development complicate any attempt to consummate their feelings. These two characters, refusing to forget one another, become completely unhappy yet incapable of living without the other. Both characters die from two causes: their anguish for each other and starvation. The story ends with their corpses being buried right beside one another.
After performing some research on this particular story, no opera to my knowledge has ever been composed on it. There is a ballet for orchestra called "Schemselnihar" composed by Leo Smit in 1929, but there is no music associated with this story beyond that. This story does not have a libretto. That makes the idea for me all the more fascinating.
Since late March, I made my decision. I have been slowly writing the libretto for this opera ever since. Although the task is arduous, the experience is certainly rewarding as I shall provide in the brief excerpt below. The words in this excerpt are spoken by the Persian Prince when he listens to a concert given by Schemselnihar's slaves in her palace. The slave's song resonates with the Prince's experiences, and his amazement in response to the music is illustrated clearly in the following passage. I have denoted in bold the English translation, which is in prose, followed by my adaptation of the text into verse underneath:
“Is it possible that you can have the faculty of penetrating the inmost thoughts of others, and that the knowledge that you have of what passes in my heart has enabled you to give my feelings utterance in the sound of your delightful voice? I could not myself have expressed in more appropriate terms the passion of my heart.”
Ah, can it be? That you possess the gift
To probe my inmost thoughts? That you may lift
By grace and knowledge what assails my mind
And heart, lend words to feelings unexpress’d,
Stir up by mellow tones that have impress’d
Me, lost in sighs? What powers do I find!
Your song excels all thrills my heart can pen
In passion, scribes in stone the flames of men.
Perhaps, the next question that comes to mind is: Is this opera intended for viewing by a large audience: over 200 people? For many months, it was my intention to write the opera in this way, but I have recently decided that it might be more artistically feasible to produce this opera for a smaller crowd, of approximately 30 to 40 people. Rather than having a full-blown orchestral score, because the setting for the majority of the story is rather intimate, it would be far more suitable to employ a chamber orchestra than to inflate the musical drama into a giant orchestra.
Since I began work on the libretto, I have finished drafting the first act. It is my goal to complete the rest of the libretto before I graduate from the University of Iowa. Perhaps, once the entire libretto is closer to completion, I could compose a scene from the opera for a limited production. The possibility remains open-ended at this point. I won't know until I am much closer to finishing the text. In future correspondence I will provide further information about my progress on this work when the time seems appropriate and only when significant progress has been made.
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